Monday, June 05, 2017

Where
politics are concerned a lot of folk have stopped listening. They
don't believe anymore in what politicians say or do. That's quite
understandable after all the times they've been fooled and duped by
phony campaign promises and let down by reforms guaranteed to cures
for steadily worsening social problems. Some though haven’t
totally turned their backs on politics yet. They're watching the
present General Election campaign. They still believe that hearing
and weighing up what the various candidates propose can enable them
to elect who will get this country's problems solved. The "believers"
still hope to find the "right” person to put Britain's house
in order. The "non-believers" have come to doubt that such
people exist. The Socialist Party offers a third view which, besides
agreeing that no "right” politician is available, goes further
by denying that our country's desperate problems have been caused by
the "wrong” leader chosen to run government in the past.
Instead of blaming political office-holders, this view claims that
the real cause of our social problems lies partly in the form of
government we have and mainly in the capitalist system on which the
government rests. It therefore also claims that the ballot should be
used to fundamentally change both. Candidates for political office
are but manifestations of class interests. Politicians are managerial
strata who defend the status quo and are acting as its enforcers.
But a cardinal rule for a socialist is to tell the truth. The Labour
Party is not our friend. Nor can it be reformed to do our bidding.
Its purpose is to keep us enslaved. To pretend otherwise is to sow
confusion.

No
election would be complete without denial, delusion, deception, and
those words: “the lesser of two evils.” At every election
leftists argue about third parties and the ‘lesser evil’ and
‘tactical voting’. Truth is the bosses have both parties in the
palms of their hands, while we need one of our own. Workers who are
so hypnotised by the promise of reforms, those patches on a rotten
social structure, that they neglect to observe the rottenness of the
capitalist system itself, will naturally support that party whose
program promises them most, providing that they retain enough
infantile trustfulness to believe anything from the mouth of a
politician. Suicidal though this is, and regrettable from the
socialist standpoint, there is no doubt that the workers who want to
vote for Corbyn believe they are acting intelligently. He might bring
some seeming advantage to some sections of the workers. He might
introduce measures bringing fleeting relief to the some of the
working class who forget to ask themselves why reform legislation is
necessary, and why, in spite of it, their conditions still grow
steadily worse. Socialism distinguishes itself from capitalism by
this fundamental requirement: the community shall own the means of
production in common. Corbyn believes in the capitalist system. He
might advocate reform of capitalism’s current excesses, but he is
pro-capitalist. The Socialist Party doesn’t see capitalism as a
reformable institution but the Labour Party does.
Corbyn and his left-wing cheer-leaders envision
a “socialist” utopia built and operating on the back of a
capitalist infrastructure. Not only do they fail to see the
incompatibility they blatantly ignores the incongruity of the two.
Like all politicians
of the major parties Corbyn is selling a fantasy. We have seen
"left-wing" governments elsewhere and how their electoral
promises turn to nothing e.g. Syriza in Greece.

To
build a socialist movement strong enough to defeat the power of the
capitalist system will be a protracted struggle of historic
proportion. It will take a sea change in thinking and understanding.
Perhaps, and all socialists hope it is the case, we may well be
moving into a good time to talk about revolution and socialism. But
real change requires thinking beyond an individual General Election
campaign. The tendency of reformers to place all their eggs in the
Labour Party basket and all their hopes in charismatic leaders has
prevented genuine social movements from gaining momentum. Revolution
requires changing the political landscape. It means banishing the
fantasy that the world’s problems can be solved if we just vote for
the right Labour candidate. Socialists understand that the social
ills demands an independent workers’ movement with a strong
electoral component. The virtual disappearance of such ideas and
goals in the last few generations is one of the reasons for the
triumph of the right-wing populists. Real system change is always
called too radical to be taken seriously. A workers’ party is one
that builds its base of support among those who’ve seen their
ideals betrayed and rejected by the major parties, by those who’ve
realised that none of the parties serve their needs, and by those
whose alienation has kept them away from voting booths. It engages
working people in a way that enables them to represent their own
interests. It runs candidates at all levels, from town councils to
the House of Commons. The 1% fear more than anything else a permanent
and well-organised working class party and have nightmares about
finding such a new party seated in legislatures.

Lesser
evilism encourages a race to the bottom. The future doesn’t depend
on a successful Labour Party and Corbyn as prime minister. It depends
on all of us who support political revolution. Do we want to change
direction or are we content to rubber-stamp the political status quo
every election day. If the former, then it’s imperative that we
build The Socialist Party now. We must cease feeding the beast.
Corbyn may well re-distribute some wealth to benefit the poorer and
his campaign has pulled the word ‘socialism’ out of the garbage
can of history and initiated a debate about both capitalism and
socialism. But when those policies implemented by a supposed
socialist fail it will be socialism that will be discredited. When
the workers want socialism they will not be deceived into believing
that support of the non-socialist programme of Corbyn's Labour Party
will give them it. For sure, many people demonstrate their faith in
the radicalism of Corbyn by joining in their tens of thousands yet
how many of his supporters have any idea of what real socialism is?

Capitalism
has to be superseded if humanity is to survive. Capitalism, by all
indications, is intent upon destroying decent life on the planet in
the not so distant future. This is not merely the judgment of
apocalyptic catastrophe cranks. We either figure how to remove
capitalism and radically reconstruct society into an ecologically
sustainable post-capitalist society or we can forget about a future.
Once we can eliminate the profit motive, the door is open to rational
use of natural resources for the first time in human history. We must
turn our efforts to exposing capitalism for what it have become, a
malignant threat to the very future of life on earth. The capitalist
system is a time-bomb. Mankind is in a race with catastrophe. The
threat is growing ever closer. Let us choose freedom, socialism, and
survival while we can.

As
the general election approaches the whole of the mainstream media
machine is in over-drive to convince people that they will be really
shaping their own destinies by using their vote. This election
campaign is largely a television advertising war. Unlike the
anarchists, the Socialist Party does not put forward mass abstentions
as a principle. We point out that the capitalist state machine will
continue to function whether people vote or not. The failure of
Parliament to promote the interests of the people effectively must be
explained in a class way, that is to say, we must combat the belief
that it is all just a matter of the weakness of human nature that
power corrupts the politicians. We do not say that all is needed is
the correct leader in order to exercise control over us lesser
mortals - for our own good, of course. Instead we try to help people
to draw the conclusion from their own experience that all governments
in capitalist society are for the express purpose of maintaining the
privileged position of all those who own the wealth. What is very
clear is that whichever party forms the government they serve the
interests of the capitalist ruling class. Capitalism is a system that
offers no future for any worker. As socialists, we support no
capitalist side in this election. Voting for Labour or Tory means
supporting both parties’ attacks against the working class.

The
Socialist Party candidates are conducting their election campaign for
the purpose of rallying our fellow workers to the idea of socialism.
The purpose in their standing is not to make the system work but to
carry on agitation and education around the issues of the day. The
other parties, however, are not bothering about anything but seats in
the Parliament, and do not care whether the voters have any clear
principles. Socialist ideas take root and grow in circumstances where
people decide to organise and do something to change their
circumstances. Voting for the Socialist Party is an opportunity to
make use of your democratic rights and will put new heart and spirit
into those who desire a new society. Our candidates are standing not
to further their own careers. In these elections the seeds of
socialism will have been sown and hopefully germinate, sprout shoots
and grow.

Working
people need to throw the capitalist parties out of office and the
entire apparatus of government must be replaced. The needs of working
people can only be met by creating a socialist economy, where
ownership and control are taken from the tiny minority of capitalists
and placed in the hands of the working people, to be run
democratically. Reorganised on a socialist basis, our world can be
free of racism, sexism, poverty, economic insecurity and
exploitation. When the vast resources available to us are used to
serve the needs of all instead of the profits of the few, and with a
world socialist commonwealth, then the way will be opened for
unparalleled growth in culture, freedom and the development of every
individual. Such a society is worth fighting for. The only way we can
get a rational society, based on the needs of the majority, is by
organising and fighting for it. In this general election campaign we
will be advocating for social change. We will be passing out our
leaflets, answering questions and just generally "talking”
socialism. We take every opportunity to convince people of the need
to do away with the repressive, unjust capitalist system, and replace
it with socialism. Nor will we be closing up shop after polling day.
We know that a better world is not only possible, but absolutely
necessary. The capitalist system is run for the profits of the few,
not the needs of the majority. Workers are thus continually forced to
fight to defend their interests.

The Socialist Party
participate in these elections to spread our case for socialism. Our
intention is to prove to workers that their problems cannot be solved
without the overthrow of the capitalist system.